Coatesville budget process stalled

COATESVILLE — The city’s budgeting process was stalled and delayed Thursday after City Council determined that it did not have the proper financial information to continue.

Finance Director John Marcarelli said he was working on getting the most accurate year-to-date expenditures and hopes to have those figures sometime next week. He said part of the problem is that previous administrations had paid bills from the wrong line items in the budget.

“We can’t even get to the point where we see if we’re getting the right deal, because we have to see if bills are being charged to the right account,” Marcarelli said.

Council said without accurate year-to-date figures it cannot properly assess whether budget projections for 2013 are accurate.

“We are in a crisis in this city and we have vowed to work to try to get ourselves out of it,” said Councilwoman Carrie “Villa” Hunt. We can’t do it if we pass a budget without the correct numbers.”

So council ended the workshop midway through its discussion over the public works budget and never covered the police, capital projects or liquid fuels budgets. Additionally, council decided to cancel a special meeting that was scheduled for Monday to pass the preliminary budget. The cancellation was done to provide Marcarelli with more time to finalize the year-to-date figures.

Council now plans to approve the preliminary budget during its regular meeting on Nov. 26. The approval of the final budget and the public hearing on the budget are still scheduled for Dec. 10, but that meeting will now begin at 7 p.m. to provide time for the hearing.

Council President David Collins said the discussion on the various portions of the budget scheduled for Thursday has essentially been canceled, but council can still ask questions about specific items prior to its votes on the preliminary and final budgets.

Council made its decision after a meeting that lasted more than two hours, and it barely discussed any items in the public works budget and had a preliminary discussion on a leasing program for vehicles for multiple departments in the city.

The meeting also began more than 15 minutes late, because of a lack of a majority of council present. The meeting was held with only four members present. Councilmen Ed Simpson, Jeffrey LoPrinzi and Joseph Hamrick were absent.